


Storm Chasing

by lifeaftermeteor



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galaxy Garrison, Gen, Hints of Pining Keith (Voltron), Past Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Pre-Canon, Pre-Kerberos Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:21:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26068642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifeaftermeteor/pseuds/lifeaftermeteor
Summary: Shiro is celebrating his latest promotion with the Garrison alongside his closest friends. Keith takes the opportunity to ask Matt—Shiro’s long-time friend and confident—a sensitive question.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24
Collections: Garrison Days, Intrusive Sheith Thoughts





	Storm Chasing

**Author's Note:**

> You know those ideas that hit you like a freight train while you’re in the shower? Yeah, this is one of those. Started as a Twitter thread [over here](https://twitter.com/i/status/1259918809818955776).

“Hey, can I ask you a question?”

Matt looked up to find Keith coming up to stand beside him against the balcony railing. The cadet was in plain clothes like the rest of them—as was appropriate for the merrimaking in honor of Shiro’s latest promotion—but his eyes gave him away every time. They were perpetually wary and suspicious and it didn’t take much to extrapolate that this quiet and otherwise unassuming guest was Shiro’s prickly mentee. “Of course,” Matt answered, lowering aside his beer to dangle between his fingers. 

“I’d appreciate it if the question didn’t get back to Shiro.”

Oh, that was interesting. “Sure thing.”

Keith bit his lip and seemed to weigh whether or not he really should ask, despite the assurance. In the end, curiosity won out. “Why did Shiro and Adam break up?”

Matt’s eyes went wide. “Oh yeah, that’s definitely something that shouldn’t get back to Shiro.”

“Exactly,” Keith acknowledged, sounding a bit miffed. “So…?”

Matt took another swig from the bottle in his hand and mulled his answer. He’d known Shiro since they themselves were kids only a little younger than Keith was now, had been roommates as bright-eyed cadets and friends even when their paths parted—Shiro into operations and Matt into his current specialization. How exactly did one recap years of friendship into something as feeble as words? 

He decided to focus on the question at hand. “Adam was the Garrison Golden Boy—”

“Hence the call sign?”

“—Yeah, ‘Helio,’” Matt acknowledged with a smirk. “We refused to let him live it down, but he seemed to thrive in it. He was regimented and structured and disciplined. Aced all his academics. Textbook flying. Rule-abider. Reliable, confident, trustworthy… So on and so forth.

“But Shiro...Shiro was a twister. Or a hurricane. Still is, come to think of it. Shiro was a sweet kid when he arrived, and he had at least half the Garrison wrapped around his finger within his first year. But he also hung around with the likes of me and Curtis and all those people in the apartment behind us. None of us were what you’d call ‘rule-abiders.’ Rules were always more a _suggestion_ that at times warranted being… _overlooked,_ we’ll say.” 

This earned him a knowing chuckle from Keith and Matt smiled to himself. He took a swig from his drink before continuing. “Shiro was a good kid. And he did alright in his classes, but it was when you put him in a flying machine that the magic happened. He’d pull ridiculous solutions out of thin air when faced with a crisis in a simulator or in the air or orbit and leadership would always all ask him how he figured it out. Shiro would always respond with something like, ‘I wanted to see what would happen,’ or ‘I wanted to see if it would work.’ He had this...innate ability to just _know_ , like the machine had become part of him and he could _hear_ it. None of us could ever come close to that kind of thing. That kind of...natural ability and skill is a once in a lifetime kind of thing to see. It’s thrilling. And awe-inspiring. And kinda scary.

“Especially because Shiro _isn’t_ regimented and by-the-book. He _destroys_ the book. He barrels through your preconceptions like gale-force winds and leaves you wondering how in God’s name this happened.”

Matt paused again and twisted the bottle in his fingers, elbows braced on the balcony railing. Behind them, laughter and music filtered through the open door and into the night air around them. He smiled even as his memories turned sour. Matt had long suspected that Adam and Shiro were doomed from the start, having spent one too many nights consoling his friend after a bitter fight. Now focused wholly on preparations for their upcoming mission, Matt knew Shiro well enough to know that bringing up his ex was a bad idea. 

But there had been a shyness that colored Keith's question and Matt suspected it was not just curiosity that drove Keith to ask. Kerberos is coming at them fast and Matt had noticed that Keith had started looking perpetually uncertain of his footing, as if the ground beneath his feet was quaking.

If all went well, they would return from the edge of the solar system as heroes, not just for the Garrison but all mankind. Matt surmised that Keith wanted—perhaps _needed_ —to know that there would be space in Shiro’s life for him when he got back. And most importantly, how to avoid making the same mistakes Adam had.

“Adam wanted to protect him,” Matt said at last. “Adam wanted to protect Shiro from the disease that’s killing him, from the people in the Garrison that wanted him discharged, and most of all from himself and his self-destructive tendencies. But that was always a mistake: you protect the _people_ , not the _storm_.

“The storm is going to make landfall regardless of what you do to stop it, so the best you can do is batten down the hatches and hope it doesn’t throw a fishing boat through your living room. And by God if it does...you’re gonna remember its name, won’t you?

“The storm is just doing what it’s always done. It’s a natural phenomenon. And we mere humans watch it in awe, or in terror, or with respect from a healthy distance away. Eventually, that storm will spin itself out...but all we can ever really do in the meantime is hunker down or get out of the way.”

Matt turned at last to face Keith and watched as he seemed to take this all on in-stride, listening thoughtfully. He scratched at the label of the bottle in his own hand with his thumb as he mulled Matt’s words, disinterested in its contents as he reflected on Matt’s insight. 

At last Keith responded. “You said that when faced with the storm you can really only hunker down or get out of the way. But there’s a third option.” 

He looked up to meet Matt's eyes and there was something willful and dangerous in his eyes. It was a look Matt had seen dozens of times over the years, but it was one which usually stared back at him from gray eyes, not violet. 

“Oh yeah? Enlighten me.”

Keith smirked. “You chase them.”


End file.
